We’re supposed to be impressed because local Russian émigré Oleg Ivutin once lived in the old Soviet Union. Ivutin would have us believe he is authoritative enough to declare the United States is on the “fast track” to becoming the Soviet Union.

I don’t know which proves how utterly uninformed Ivutin is; his absurd comments before the Georgia Tea Party, as reported in the MDJ, or his woeful ignorance of American politics.

It sounds suspiciously like Ivutin is getting his political education from Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, and other far right radio conspiracy theorists.

Ivutin says the recent disclosures about domestic metadata spying by the National Security Agency means America is devolving into a Soviet-style “evil empire,” to quote Ronald Reagan. This fits neatly into the bogus tea party narrative that President Obama is a secret Commie.

“Obama’s argument for all this is always, ‘Well, I have this power, but we’re never going to use it. And time after time again he uses it, and whatever is going to happen after Obama we don’t know.”

Ivutin is evidently unaware of 9-11 and the powers President George W. Bush demanded in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in American history. Those powers were timidly handed over by Congress and have been in effect ever since.

We’re told the spying has prevented dozens of terrorist attacks. I guess we have to believe that, but blaming Obama for the scope and scale of NSA spying is nonsense.

Speaking of spying, the KGB, Ivutin says, encouraged Soviets to spy on one another. The FBI, Ivutin added without offering any proof, is doing the same thing through the non-profit group Infragard, which is actually designed to prevent cyber attacks, not report on what your neighbor is doing.

Ivutin bizarrely goes on to compare Soviet and U.S. prisons.

“In Russia, they were benefiting from slavery when they were putting people in jails. Here, private prisons make money off of prisoners. So when prisoners go to prison the prison owner gets money, part of that is profit.”

It’s called privatization, Oleg, a concept thoroughly embraced by conservatives like you who contend private industry can do most all things better than the government. It’s also a concept that has been disproved time and again. In fact, the privatized prison system is a national disgrace.

No talk Ivutin delivers would be complete without some old fashioned tea party Red-baiting:

“I look at John McCain and Hillary Clinton. I don’t see any differences on any issues,” Ivutin said. “These people should openly admit that ‘Yes, we’re socialists’... This is why the tea party movement, the Ron Paul movement, the liberty movements are so popular is because everybody understands it finally.”

Except the tea party isn’t popular anywhere but in far right strongholds like Cobb County, where Ivutin and his pals bask in each others’ glow. In the rest of America, only 8 percent of Republicans self identify as tea partiers, according to a January Rasmussen poll. As for Ron Paul, he finished fourth in the Georgia primary last year.

Having failed to make his central point, that the U.S.A. is the next U.S.S.R., Ivutin concluded with the usual hollow tea party talking points:

“(W)e tell … the (GOP) establishment, ‘Look, we go this far. You will split the party of the conservative movement if you go along with this.’ I will be perfectly OK with that…in the future someone will remember that this country was made up of ideals and people who were willing to stand by them, not people who were willing to, just for political conveniences, adjust to things.”

Ivutin doesn’t comprehend compromise – those “political conveniences” he speaks of – is a founding principle of the Republic. Americans understand, contrary to the tea party and Soviet dogmas, nobody gets everything they want all the time in American politics.

Guido has adequately illustrated that a good Christian can hate our president for his politics, and his religion. Congrats Guido, you have descended to a new low. It is Christians like Guido who give Christianity a bad name.

Lib in Cobb

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August 16, 2013

@Guido: Would you be as offended if our president was Jewish or Catholic or Mormon?

John Kennedy during his campaign said, "The Catholic church does not speak for me and I don't speak for the Catholic church". Were you as bitter when Joe Lieberman was running for president? Lieberman is an orthodox Jew.

Lib in Cobb

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August 15, 2013

Guido:

I have a very sound concept of Christianity and many other religions, that's why I am atheist.

It doesn't matter to me what religion our president is, so I won't be addressing this nonsense any longer. I do know that it is an issue for you and the other shallow headed "repubs" of Cobb and other locales.

We are no longer a Christian country only and I know that troubles the thin headed thinkers who refer to themselves as Christians, most are not.

Christ wouldn't care how many verses of the bible you have committed to memory, he would care more about how you treat people.

You have the absolute right to vote as you wish, at the same time, you have the absolute responsibility to be informed. Due to your error filled ideas of our presidents religion it seems you are badly uninformed.

George called himself Christian and he caused the death of thousands and thousands of men, women and children based on lies and the testosterone fueled urge to get even and re-elected.

Guido Sarducci

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August 15, 2013

Lib, Obama himself has admitted to being a Muslim.

He was raised Muslim. Provide me with the proof that he renounced Islam and became a Christian.

Going to a Christian church and listening to a bitter minister curse the United States does not make one a Christian, anymore than crawling in the oven makes one a biscuit, or walking through a garage makes one a mechanic.

You obviously have no concept of what a Christian is.

By the way, I don't have to prove he is not a Christian. He does that, quite well, on a daily basis, without any help from me.

Lib in Cobb

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August 12, 2013

@Guido: You ignored my request to provide proof that president Obama is anything other than Christian. I will bet you will also ignore listing the truth as you know it about our president.

If you can't provide the "truth" or the documentation about our president's religion from reliable sources, I will suggest that you shut your mouth.

Lib in Cobb

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August 12, 2013

@Guido: You accuse me of wearing "blinders", making it impossible for me to see the truth about our president. What is the truth?

Lib in Cobb

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August 10, 2013

@Guido:

"Blather"? The truth about our president, he is NOT Muslim as claimed by Fox, Beck, Limp, Coulter, etc. Guido, you have illustrated how badly uniformed you are by repeating the lies of the aforementioned and you take delight in repeating those lies. The absolute truth is, you and the majority of Cobb residents can't swallow the idea that a liberal, black man, with a Muslim name dared to become and REMAIN president. The fact that Barack Hussein Obama beat the best the GOP could find, just gets under your skin. The best being, a tired old man with stale ideas and a second candidate who was completely out of touch.

Good luck in 2016.

You are finished!

Guido Sarducci

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August 08, 2013

Lib, you have never had an original thought in your life and your latest blather is just further proof.

You wear blinders so you nobody can expose you to the truth about the President.

You and Kevin are parts of the problems we are facing in this country, caused by empty headed fools who keep drinking the Obama Fool-Aid and try to rationalize everything the idiot in the White House does.

Lib in Cobb

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August 08, 2013

@Guido: You are not one who should be criticizing anyone for being a parrot. In another post, you made the statement that President Obama is Muslim. This is right out of the Fox playbook and repeated by the "tea nuts". President Obama has a Muslim name, he has practiced Christianity for years. Do you recall how the "wingers" had their panties in a twist over his attending the Jeremiah Wright church?

Since you believe our president is Muslim. I will challenge you to provide documented proof that our president is anything other than Christian. Only a very legitimate source will be accepted.

It is safe to assume that you also follow the "birthers" line of thinking and the tales of Obama's friendship with Bill Ayers.

You have the absolute right to vote as you wish, at the same time you have the absolute responsibilty to be informed. You are woefully uninformed.

Guido Sarducci

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August 07, 2013

Kevin, why do you keep talkling about the tea party as if you knew anything about the people who make it up and what they believe and what they are working for? You are criminally ignorant on the subject.

In addition, you are certainly not anywhere close to being knowledgable on the intelligence community, either ours or that of the former U.S.S.R.

You are merely a parrot for the liberal party line and are trying to defend the indefensible.

You have not made the first attempt to determine if there is any validity in the words of Ivutin.

You saw what you felt was an attack on his royal highness, Barack Obama, and waded in unarmed, with no knowledge and little to say, except try to tie the man's words to the tea party.

Possessing a large supply of ignorance on both subjects, you should have remained silent.

Sadly, you chose to make a fool of yourself, AGAIN!

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